Imagine the potential for pulmonary care if we could monitor a patient’s lung health in real time across the world—literally from one side of the globe to the other. Imagine if we could adjust a ventilator’s settings without being in the patient’s room, or even in the same hemisphere. Both scenarios are very real in today’s world of telehealth and remote monitoring capabilities. But it took a lot to get to this point.
I’ve been involved in online technology since 1969—when moving data at two kilobytes per second was like sucking an elephant through a straw. We have gone from that humble trickle to a firehose of data flow. This transformation has enabled health care technologies that will fuel our way forward to make health care more accessible and affordable for more people worldwide.
Consider the challenges posted by the pandemic: Telehealth has kept people safe from aerosolized COVID-19 exposure while ensuring they can still “see” their health care provider. Telehealth, together with remote monitoring, can help increase patient adherence and reduce anxiety. For example, artificial intelligence is evolving to the point where we can detect small changes within a patient’s body or habits that help predict an asthma or COPD exacerbation. Clinicians can then use those early warning signals to mitigate a potential critical health episode.
Increased data bandwidth, evolving algorithms and device innovations, such as tele-ventilators and the BiWaze™ Cough System, are transforming what’s possible in pulmonary health. The simple outcome of these complex advances? Patient peace of mind.
Imagine a patient sleeping restfully in her own bed, confident that her lung health is being monitored by her care team—whether that team is at the clinic down the road or on the other side of the world. This is why I work with lung health innovators like ABM Respiratory Care to imagine, then engineer, advances in remote monitoring and telehealth for pulmonary medicine.
Dr. Landon was also interviewed on ABM Respiratory Care’s podcast, Innovations for Lung Health.